Apparently some users believe that not using your downvoting power, is a good reason for your post to be downvoted... 😂 Since we are talking votes, we are talking politics. And since we are talking politics, we are talking about attributing value to the policies applied on the blockchain. What would Aristotle say if he were a hive/steem user?

Well, Aristotle thought there was only one legit way to perform rhetoric. That was the ability to address each point of your counterparty with a logical argument. The first wrong way was to use emotion, to move your audience far from logic. And the second wrong way was to personally attack the counterparty drawing the attention to personality faults of the person making the argument, which may or may not be correct or valid.

Now, let's go back to the notion of mandatory use of downvote power and why I believe that this is a fascist notion, far from the freedom the blockchain is supposed to represent.

First of all, from a user perspective when someone publishes a post, believes he/she has something to say. The user is making a statement and/or an argument. The community members may wish to review the statement, upvote if they agree, downvote or ignore if they disagree or are indifferent. When I downvote a post means I am actively engaging with the blogger, expressing my disagreement with his/her statement and wish to reduce the reward claimed.

To have the option to actively disagree with a statement is a freedom to be enjoyed. But happens when a downvote becomes an obligation?

An obligation forced with an indirect threat of powerful users that you will be downvoted irrespective of your content, statement or argument you make?

Firstly, as Aristotle would agree, a downvote irrespective of your CONTENT is a direct charge on your personality. Democratic,NOT! Ripping you of rewards attributed by many other members of the community that have actually followed your argument, is an assault to the community itself.

Secondly, let's assume that a member needs every cent earned on the platform and allows for this threat to bully him/her and decides to use the downvote even though he/she hasn't been using the downvote power so far. Best case scenario, the member finds posts that he/she doesn't like which he/she is pleased to downvote. To be needing the rewards, means that this member is not a big stakeholder. What are the odds that he/she will downvote a crap post by a rich user and increase chances for a potential downvote war? Zero. Nada. What will the poor member do? He or she will downvote another poor member, whose downvote means nothing. So we end up with two small stakeholders gaining nothing else from the platform but AN UNPLEASANT EXPERIENCE And that's the best case scenario, where the post downvoted is sort of crap.

Worst case scenario, the user downvotes a post irrespective of content... Just because he/she has to in order to escape the branding by the downvote obsessed whale. The moment this happens, a person becomes a bully for the sake of a few cryptos (or even a fraction), or out of fear of losing reputation due to the downvotes.

At the very same moment another user gets frustrated by the unfair downvote, and depending on the type of content and the blogger's personality, the blockchain will suffer the loss of excitement, engagement and participation of yet another person.

And what is the value of a social media platform, if not the number and the experience of its users??

Of course, a rich user is not necessarily a content creator or a serious content curator... A major stakeholder maybe a simple investor who does or doesn't understand the value of empathy and kindness on any social activity, having been an M&A banker for over 15 years I know that it is the high valuation of best use, of goodwill and of the intangible assets and not the obvious value of an asset, that makes people walk away with unexpected wealth.

In any case, I have been in this community since its early steps, and I have seen it go through 40 waves. I have been upvoted, I have been downvoted, I have been curated, I have been ignored, my art has been loved by some and I have loved others for their content and for their personality. I have even fallen in love, moved in and broken up with someone from this community.

BUT I HAVE NEVER EVER DOWNVOTED ANYONE nor will I, a) because I have only a few good traits in my character and one of them is positive criticism as a means of improvement, b) I allow myself to accept different opinions without engaging in meaningless confrontation and most importantly c) I don't wish to hurt or worry or discourage anyone in a virtual world whose sole existence is to make everyone happier! I am not a FASCIST, will never be.

So if this means that I will become downvoted by those who think I should use my downvote power, so be it. I will find another way to become a rich bitch. For my friends out there, I will remain your friend.

PS. The artwork is a repost, I created it a couple of years ago a d posted on Steemit